Brussels, 16/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - Some people might feel that the coincidence of the timetable was too much to be true. On a visit to Greece on the eve of the first round of the critical presidential vote at the national parliament, the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, spent much of the press conference he held stressing that he had not come to interfere in the internal politics of the country.
“I'm not involved in Greek internal political life, I don't want to interfere at all”, said Moscovici, who went on to explain that he was there because just one week earlier, the Eurogroup had agreed to extend the Greek programme by two months.
Earlier that day, a member of his own political party, Guillaume Balas, had attacked his decision to visit the Greek capital. “At no point have I read anywhere that we were a federation with a government which has been given a mandate to go and support any particular political family. This raises sovereignty issues”, Balas told Le Figaro, adding that “given the political backdrop (…), what Juncker and Moscovici are doing is a provocation which could increase anti-European feeling”(our translation).
“I am not here as a supporter or detractor”, Moscovici stressed, “I am here to work”. He added that he stood ready to meet the leader of the opposition, Alexis Tsipras, in Brussels over the next few weeks, if he so wished. At the moment, as a European Commissioner who has long pledged that his first visit would be to Greece, it is “understandable that I'm here in Athens for discussions with the legitimate authorities”.
Although it is by no means certain at this point that the country will be led into early elections (if the government fails to win 180 votes at the Parliamentary election of the President - it has 155 MPs it can count on: Ed), Moscovici in any case came to Athens with a message for the Greek population. “There is nothing dramatic about this extension of the programme (…). It is not about making the troika stay longer than it was planned”, said Moscovici, who went on to speak of the next phase, focusing on growth. Despite the credit line, when the programme comes to an end, the next surveillance phase currently being prepared by the eurozone will be “lighter, less intrusive”, the Commissioner said, going so far as to state that the troika would probably be gone after February. This interpretation has its limits, as the two-pack provides for a six-month post-programme surveillance until the country has paid back 75% of the loans it has received. In the case of Greece, that is not expected to happen overnight. However, the Commission is still striving for a “more normal, more confident relationship” with Greece.
When asked whether the Commission had a Plan B in the event that Tsipras' opposition party, which is no friend of the troika, came to power in the result of any elections, Moscovici went no further than to say that he disliked Plan Bs in general. (EL)